Why I play Ultimate
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Loading ...I love ultimate. It is my passion, it drives me to stay in shape, and all sorts of things besides. But why?
I like ultimate a lot for one main reason (everything else that comes is a result of getting involved with the sport or a corollary of this): I know I can be successful with it.
Ultimate’s a great, competitive sport, mind you, but it’s really not even close to any other given sport I could do in terms of reaching the upper tier; you have athletes training for most of their day to compete for one day or over the course of several days every several months. That’s some serious dedication. Ultimate has people who train simply by scrimmaging every few weeks, with perhaps a few bits of “lifting” or “training” thrown in for good measure that are able to perform quite well.
Would I have liked to been blessed with the body of a fish like Michael Phelps? Yeah, but instead I got this short, small-handed, small-footed thing, which doesn’t even float without something keeping it up (most people float naturally; I sink).
Would I have liked to have been a Steve Prefontaine sort of runner, driven to train and compete at the highest level? Yeah, but I’m nowhere near that motivated to run great distances every single day, and nowhere near good enough to run for Dartmouth’s team.
Would I have liked to have been a world-class triple jumper, hurdler, or sprinter? Yeah, but again, I lack the requisite build to project as something exceptional.
I want to be great at something, particularly a sport; I was exceptional in my high school, but unfortunately I hit a wall of sorts advancing to college (graduating a year early probably didn’t help my case, athletically speaking, either). I needed to diversify, find something else I slotted into better, and ultimate is that thing.
I’d already played a bit in my high school years, summer camp, summer league, so I could already play a bit when I got here at Dartmouth, which gave me a leg on a lot of people. And I’m a good athlete; most schools, the best athletes do their chosen DI sport, so I stand out in that regard as well.
And I can continue to stand out as an athlete in this sport. Unlike my other chosen sports, you have all sorts of skill levels and athletes being competitive, which bodes well for my future–there is no single prototypical ultimate player.
I’m hoping for great things, and planning to work towards them. If I work twice as hard as the next guy, I’m going to be that much better when it counts, I’m going to get better that much sooner, and I’ll continue to elevate my game until I find a ceiling.
Right now there’s no limit in sight…
